Tons of of law enforcement officials raided two dozen properties throughout Germany linked to Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, a detailed ally of President Vladimir Putin
The searches have been undertaken in reference to alleged breaches of sanctions and money-laundering guidelines, officers stated.
State and federal police have been looking 24 properties in Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, prosecutors in Frankfurt and Munich stated in separate statements.
The assertion by Frankfurt prosecutors named the suspect solely as a Russian businessman, however German weekly Der Spiegel, which first reported the raids – carried out by about 250 law enforcement officials – named him as Mr Usmanov.
Mr Usmanov is topic to sanctions within the UK, the US and the European Union.
Frankfurt prosecutors stated the suspect of their investigation was alleged to have carried out a number of transactions between 2017 and 2022 utilizing a posh community of offshore firms to cover the origin of the funds, which amounted to hundreds of thousands of euros.
“There's a suspicion that the sums transferred resulted from crimes, particularly tax evasion,” prosecutors stated.
Munich prosecutors stated in a press release that their investigation centred on allegations of funds being made to safety firms guarding the properties, in breach of sanctions guidelines.